Since many programs don’t work in Windows 7, for many people there isn’t much point in using it. I remember being at a conference when Bill Gates said anyone who upgrades there software to get rid of bugs has .... lost their marbles.

I have to admit that the W7 interface is sleeker and user friendly but, materially, the same look can be achieved in XP. Anyone looking to upgrade to W7 needs to look at the upgrade options table on the M$ web site, depending on their present software they may have to perform a clean install that would wipe everything from their hard drive. The file authorisation options are “fun” for a technologically aware person interested in testing new software, but I am sure that users looking for a simple computing experience will have their blood pressure raised.

Still, certainly an improvement over Vista. In six months time, when they have ironed out the present problems (including how to fix the problems they didn’t fix with the recent update), I am sure it will be a cracking product. PS. I am an actual Windows 7 (7600) user of 3 months, I am not from the Microsoft Money Printing Department who are all too willing to issue a new operating sytem which isn’t needed because everyones software works fine with the existing reliable Windows XP.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "Many programs don't work in Win7". The addition of XP Mode in Win7 Professional and Ultimate gets around any compatibility issues, so that shouldn't be the case...unless of course you're running software built for Win95 or even Win 3.11!

I am aware of the XP compatibility mode but it does not work with all programs, I am told that M$ are working on this bu then many of the problems will be down to others' software.

I have a nephew who does graphics work and his program has issues on Windows 7, he was told they are bringing out an update to make it work. Not all of his modern computer games work either, irrespective of whether they were designed for Vista or XP.

It is always the same, what they claim and what happens in reality is often different. Remember that M$ is the company who were telling everyone for years that Vista was great, Vista was super etc etc when they and their customers knew it was not.

Rhetorical question; how do you describe a company that year after year knowingly sells a product it knows to be deficient and not what they claim it to be?

Fortunately they have not cocked up W7 like they did with Vista, but it is still early stages. I certainly wouldn't like to spend hard earned money on a new machine with W7, then download the current updates and find that they don't work properly so that the new PC starts up and shuts down (is it 5 or 6 timeas at the start of each day?) while it tries to repeatedly install and then uninstall the updates.

Addition, apart from a few crashes I have had no problem with MS Office 2007 ( that is where I "live"). Sage 50 wouldn't install in July but I don't know whether it has been updated. There was a published list of processors, including dual/quad core processors from Intel and AMD, that would not run the XP compatibility mode...I think the last count was about 20 processors. Obviously there is no point upgrading to W7 if you have one of these and have to use the XP compatibility mode.

Microsoft products don't work on their own operating system - and bearing in mind the cost of VS Pro together with man hours messing about only to find there is a problem, Microsoft should actually be paying anyone to use their products rather than the other way around

It appears that from the comments posted so far that the design improvements brought in by Vista and carried forward into Windows 7 have not been understood. The OS redesign eliminated many of the flaws in XP (and there were many!). The problems some of the correspondents have experienced are because some designers of non MS products have sought to design sloppy code which ignores fundamental IT rules concerning the separation of OS functions and application code. It is unfair to criticise Microsoft for other companies failings.

I have cursed Microsoft in the past, but recognise that they are improving the unseen OS functions radically. It should be recognised that the speed of development of hardware alone gives the company work just to accommodate new types of devices. The new OS helps companies to develop such products without affecting the principal functions of the OS which was a major problem in the past.

Questionnable whether it is really anything to do with misunderstanding

How come Microsoft own products don't work with Windows 7- reference VS2008? In this respect is it really unfair to criticise Microsoft for their own failings

As for separation between OS & applications - sometime ago Microsoft themselves were accused of having an inside track by having their applications use undocumented calls in the OS for their own benefit & to the detriment of their competitors.

In any event it is perfectly valid to adopt system calls in 3rd party code. Furthermore, even when moving code from VS2003 to VS2005 (both Microsoft products) one was faced with many 'redundant calls' just between the two versions 3 years apart.

This is the fundmental problem with the Microsoft approach because they set rules which they promptly flout when it suits them; unfortunately this leaves everyone else high & dry